Deecisive

the leadership team should be something that all players should be aspiring to attain, membership must be earned and deserved otherwise it erodes its value. So I am happy with what ever measure they use except for age. Age should be no barrier, i.e. either too young or too old. If Viney or Rodan are the best men for the job then go so be it.

we have pick 3 in the psd so will are likely to use that in preference to a high pick in the national draft.

I agree with the Dawes and Rodan - we need guys with experience to help show the way, and help shoulder the responsibility

Jetta has not really set the world on fire, he would have to be being considered to be dropped. and macdonald while serviceable could be redundant with Gillies arriving. I would think how they conduct themselves at training in the next week or so will have a big bearing on their future.

I like Rivers a lot but not sure he can hold down fullback like scarlet, i think Geelong may have gotten this one wrong.

Taking a legal position Melbourne has now signaled to the AFL that we are not going to line down and be penalized for something all clubs have done. And what have they done. They played players in new positions, sent players for operations, rested players, etc. That is not tanking. That is trying to squeeze extra effort out of players and to help teach them the game they know the season is over for them and are trying new things for the next year. I dont believe any club has asked their players to not play, and I doubt that there are any players out there who throw games on the hope that they may get some new 18 old superstar coming in to take their place. Every player knows they are playing for the spot on the roster so everyone would be playing not only for the club but to ensure they are not given the flick at the end of the year. The AFL's investigator must think he is still in Africa with stopping and starting his tape to record or not record what he wants, demanding answers and threatening, I am sure the Melbourne QC will love to get this guy on the stand and find out who sanctioned what, may actually be able to ask a few people about who leaked what to the newspapers. I do not see the AFL being able to win this, no matter what penalty they give Melbourne they will be called to answer in public why other teams have not been looked at and why. I think the AFL needs to negotiate a suitable outcome with the MFC before this goes much further.

The spotlight will be shone brightly on the AFL and its process and the need for it to justify why Melbourne and not others re being questioned. Good move Dees.

I wonder if Neeld is going to do a second cut after they go through the FA's and have a look at the draft prospects. Does anyone know who has not signed a contract yet!

We have added a lot of depth to our side for next year which will help us win a few more games as we should score more heavily when we get the ball into our forward 50. But other clubs will also do well from the draft GWS and Bulldogs are going to get some good pickups this this from the draft so that will help them be more competitive. What we need to do is tighten up our defensive pressure. Looking at a couple of this years games on Foxtel and you can see the lack of pressure as teams just ran us ragged with their loose men and the endeavor/effort from some players at times left a lot to be desired, the Nth Melbourne game for instance saw them score something like 12+ goals from turnovers. This is the part of our game that kills us, guys hand balling the ball out of bounds and getting pinged, kicking out from defense and putting it over the boundary, or swinging back across ground and getting it chopped off, kicking it into our forward 50 to a 2+on1 contests. Our skill level and possession level has to improve, if it does then we have the potential to challenge most sides. If it does not then next years cull will be even more savage.

Not sure the AFL can find us guilty and fine us without giving us a right or reply to their findings. This will hopefully take this past the draft period, penalties would then hopefully be applied to next years draft.

If Wines is there we will probably take him, he is a tough nut that we need, if he is not there we will have plenty of other quality young players to choose from, and hopefully Wines will want to come home from Sydney to play for the dees in a year or two.

Not an impossible dream, obviously injuries will play a part in who makes the finals. I watched a few reruns of games from this year and we seemed to have lots of entries into the forward 50 for nil return, and lots of stupid turnovers. Both of these could be reversed with a good preseason, a full list and the quality inclusions we have. Dream the Dream Demon.

OD, maybe not, but I think it would be well worth the MFC at least trying to see if they could snag a double header with Casey (hogan and co).

I like the idea of Casey scorpions wearing melbourne colors, people will naturally link melbourne/demons with those colors, so no need to call them demons and [censored] off existing fans. I like the idea of our players going around to the schools and helping younger kids with football clinics, this is a great way to introduce kids to the MFC and pick up more members. Getting local people supporting Casey and the red and blue will translate to some at least following the MFC. And I Love the idea of Casey playing games before the Dees. I used to love going to the footy early to see the reserves play before the main match to see who was pressing for selection, see the new kids, etc.. I would think Hogan and others in our VFL side would get more bums on seats and introduce them to melbourne supporters. VFL is also televised and watched reasonably widely, so having Casey play in red and blue would improve brand recognition.

I agree that we should start proceedings against CW, it would probably not cost a lot to at least start proceedings, it has to get her (and hopefully her editors) a little worried about the possibility of loosing as well as no one can ever truely feel safe in our legal system. But if we do so, can we at least leak the story to another rag first!

sadly for Bailey he opened this can of worms when he did his exit interview with Melbourne, Broke Mcleans statements by themselves would have done nothing without Bailey's own words prior to that. He is obviously fighting the charge of tanking as even if he was given immunity this would tarnish his reputation and result in him not getting a job in football again. So he has to continue down that line of I did not tank. Much is made of the meeting in the 'vault' this use of the term vault seems to imply secret mens business and clandestine meetings to plot, where in actual fact it appears to be the usual place they hold meetings. The meeting in question obviously needs to be seen in context was this a normal meeting where statements on draft picks were made or a special meeting to decide how to tank. I think the later would be stupid to involve half the football department in such a discussion as is being implied by CW. Also was this meeting the only time that draft picks were ever mentioned. The AFL said that the information from Melbourne staff does not align with information provided by others, presumably disgruntled ex employees well go figure, who would have thought that people with an axe to grind may put a different inference on things mentioned and may actually leave out their own part in the process. The fact is no two people will have exactly the same recollection of any meeting and everyone will have their own interpretation of what the words actually meant. As far as Bailey goes, he was at the meeting, just because he was there does not mean that he agreed to tank. He could obviously show some signs of going along with that by experimenting with roles and making positional changes and things like that. It does not in its own right mean he was attempting to loose, he may have still talked to the players before and during the game as he expected players to do their very best and encourage them to win, as far as I can see he has done nothing significant that could be interpreted as a deliberate action that stopped the players on the field from winning and there is No evidence that he asked them to not try. As for the other teams, I am amazed at the support and statements from some of the other clubs, including Eddie. Which kind of tells me he is trying to tell the AFL that this is sort of thing is not a big deal, meaning they did it and therefore dont see any need for any real investigation, lets just forget about it.

J not so sure they hurt us with $cully but saved us from the high cost of trying to keep $cully... no way was he worth anything like what melbourne would have offered to keep him, I think will spend to compensation picks and $$'s we save on him to get pretty good players.

In modern day football players kick a goal, then runs 100 meters to the bench for 30 seconds of rest before running 100 meters back to their position. One wonders if the run up and back is worth the rest. As for Jurrah, he had a lousy tank and would not have by himself changed the result in any significant way. This is just bullxxxx reporting to beat up a story where none exists in this instance. The age seems to be the only paper consistently running articles on 'MFC tanking'. I would think they should clarify the point that no players have as yet admitted to having tanked or been asked to tank, so its really MFC officials not performing to their best rather than MFC tanking. but i guess MFC officials not performing to their best makes a lousy headline. AFL would probably be pushing it to finish this investigation before draft day, so if the draft goes ahead we would still get our picks. Taking these picks away afterwards is difficult, what happens to Viney and others we picked. they sit around waiting for next year, or go into the next draft so GWS or GC can pick them up? The other clubs would be [censored] if GWS and GC were handed first shot at these. As such I would expect that all draft picks made before the results are known will be honored, future picks though maybe in jeopardy. Officials will be ex-communicated. The problem the AFL has is that it is trying to defend an inequitable system that they built, priority picks were to go to struggling clubs, but more top clubs got them than low clubs, top clubs get prime time viewing, Anzac day, friday night, etc.. while the poorer clubs travel all over Australia playing interstate.. etc.. The AFL does not want to have to defend the inequality of their system by trying to punish Melbourne, i wonder if they will try to do a deal before hand to give Melbourne a lighter caning if they accept it meekly and say nothing so that the problem goes away quicker.

Please Dees no more smokies for early picks, save that for late picks if we have any left...

GWS is unlikely to take Wines as he is not what they need and they run the risk of losing him after a year or so back to Melbourne.

The AFL has supposedly said that this investigation will end all speculation on tanking, yet this investigation only involves Melbourne. Hawthorn, Collingwood, Westcoast and Carlton are 4 powerhouse clubs that rarely end up near the bottom of the ladder but each club did so for only the necessary 2 years winning 4 games or less so they gained priority draft picks that have paid off for all of them handsomely. Strange how the priority pick system seems to have benefited/ been milked by the rich and powerful more so than the weaker clubs. The idea that other clubs excuses such as we are having a poor season so lets send guys for surgery early is acceptable is rubbish. How many times have clubs done this in the past when there were no priority draft picks up for grabs. The Kruizer cup was clearly a tank job that the AFL sanctioned, as was allowing Juddy to go to Carlton, and allowed his salary at Visy not to be included in their salary cap. Again the AFL looking after the rich. The only way I can reconcile the AFL closing off the tanking debate once and for all is to not charge Melbourne with tanking but some other offense. Therefore if melbourne did not tank other clubs did not tank, so the tanking saga can be closed. I would see the justification for this would be that the players did not tank, but there was evidence that the coaches were not trying as hard as they could have. Having said that there is no proof that Melbourne would have won even if they did try.

It wont be long before Caro and the AFL will be questioning Melbourne as to why they played Cale Morton so often, as they may perceive that as another sign of tanking?

we are only hearing the juicy pieces that drive mob rule and newspapers. The stuff that makes headlines, any investigation needs to take all the facts and interview everyone fairly, players will also be able to put the other side of the story on the table, i.e. were not told to loose, encouraged to play well, win, etc... If all goes well will not see the results of this investigation until after the draft. I doubt that we can be banned from the drafts until some findings have been made. Obviously our legal team will be having discussions with the AFL, to ensure that they are aware that we could go to court on this. Given tanking is not clearly defined and that this could drag in other clubs it is probably not where the AFL wants to go. But they have to be seen doing something. I would hope CC and CS would be penning their resignations now and anyone else involved in this sorry tale of incompetence. The fact that all players were still going out there trying to win demonstrates that players/MFC was not tanking. As for playing players out of position, not sure you can cite this as proof of trying to manipulation a loss, could also be seen as an attempt to get a win. I wonder if the AFL will lend us the money to pay the heavy fine they will probably chuck at us. I just hope out of this that Carlton and other teams are also investigated a lot harder as I dont subscribe to CW's theory its ok to loose the last game at the end of the year to get draft picks.

I wonder if the Dees will cut a little further later on, maybe wait a little longer to see who else gets delisted to see what sort of talent maybe in the PSD pool.

While the goal from Bartram was good, I loved the defensive pressure in that passage, the fact that for much of that game we were with the Saints. Maybe these new inclusions could get us on the door of the 8 next year!